Blog Post #3 - Eight Values of Free Expression

    Free Expression is very important and is something that needs to feature more prominently in peoples lives. Freedom of Speech is our First Amendment, and most people don't really know what they can and can't say, or when they think that they should say something or not. Of the Eight Values of Free Expression, there are two that stand out to me the most. The fourth Expression, which is Individual Self-Fulfillment, and the sixth Expression, to Promote Tolerance.  

    The expression of Individual Self-Fulfillment, which could also be described as Self-Actualization is something that I see more and more people starting to focus on nowadays. People are starting to take the time necessary to go and find themselves if they need to. Only about a decade ago or so, I would say that people would never go and try to "find themselves" but even in media and TV there are a lot more instances of people going to go and focus on themselves. They do it so that can hope to better understand themselves and figure out what they need or want to be to better themselves and so that they can be better for others. I completely agree that sometimes people need to take some alone time and work on themselves. 

    The other Value of Free Expression that I noticed was the sixth, Promote Tolerance. Over the last few years there has been a large increase of people that have been dubbed, Cancel Culture. These people literally went around and started petitions to get certain things changed because they were either offended or didn't like the reasoning for why it was called the way it was. Some notable changes include the Aunt Jemima Syrup, getting rid of Pepe Le Pew from Looney Tunes, and even a few movies have been heavily frowned upon, not to mention many actors and authors were cancelled for past actions. 

    But the moment I realized that this group had just grown up too soft was when they wanted to get rid of a character on a children's TV show called Paw Patrol. Paw Patrol is a children's animated cartoon about dogs who go around helping their town each with their own gimmick, one is a builder, one is a firefighter dog, and one specialized in water rescue. The was a dog on the show named Chase, and he was a police dog, Cancel Cultured wanted him off the show because they didn't want the police to be seen as good guys at the time. This is a children's cartoon show, they might've taken it too far. 

    But I must say that my favorite memory of Cancel Culture is when they tried to get two NHL teams to change their names. I was so happy to see that both teams just said, "Absolutely Not" (The Chicago Blackhawks and The Vancouver Canucks).  

    The point I am trying to make is that just because you don't like something, doesn't mean you can go around trying to change it. Sometimes in life there are going to be challenges or people who you need to rise above and just tolerate for a while, you can't just skip the challenge or avoid the person you don't like, eventually you are going to have to learn how to deal with and overcome adversity.